To celebrate the launch of Amber my publishers have organised a blog tour over almost two weeks, which starts today. Here’s the fabulous poster giving details of all the book bloggers involved:
Big thanks to all the book bloggers taking part and here is the link for Amber: http://viewbook.at/Amber.
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It’s launch day for Amber and I’m really excited for this one. It’s been a whole eleven months since I last released an eBook and I think that Amber is probably my best to date. Here’s the Amazon link if you wish to purchase a copy: http://viewbook.at/Amber. The book will also be published in paperback on July 8th and you will be able to purchase a copy from Amazon using the same link.
Here’s the book blurb to give you a taster:
NOBODY TO CALL
With a mother unfit for purpose and a brother who despises her, working girl Amber can rely on no one but herself – until the meanest pimp in Manchester, Kev Pike, offers her his protection. Unfortunately, this attracts the fury of Cora, a prostitute no one wants to get on the wrong side of…
NOWHERE TO HIDE
When Cora is found strangled to death, the late-night city streets feel increasingly exposed with a killer on the loose. And as Amber grows closer to Kev, she realises his security comes at a price she might not be willing to pay…
NOTHING TO LOSE
Amber is frozen in fear, knowing one wrong move will risk her life. But then she discovers a horrifying secret that forces her to choose: stay or run?
I hope you enjoy it.
When people find out I’m an author who originally published independently, they often ask me how they can get started. I therefore thought it would be useful to put a few suggestions together in a document. I’m reproducing them here on the blog in the hope that they might help other new authors.
KDP Select – This is the Amazon site for authors, which enables you to publish your book independently. The help pages https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200798990 have a wealth of information about the whole process and the way in which Amazon works. They can be explored from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
Price Point – I used to price my books at £1.99 as an independent author and that seems like a popular price for books published independently although some are priced at £2.99. For Amazon promotions books are usually priced at either 99p or free for a day. There is a qualifying period for how long the book would have to have been at full price before the promotion so it is best to check this out via KDP Select where you will find all the other details of how their promotions work.
Proofreading and Editing – This is really important before you begin to get your book out to a wider audience. Some reviewers are really picky, and they will find any excuse to give a bad review. You don’t want negative reviews of an otherwise great book just because of proofreading or grammatical errors that can be easily corrected.
Editors are useful for giving you an objective view of your book and pointing out things that you might have missed. Publishers usually appoint a structural editor, a copy editor and a proof-reader so the book goes through a series of checks and improvements
before it is published. If your budget is tight then I would say you need your book proofread as an absolute minimum.
NB You should also ensure that all text on your book’s Amazon page is proofread as this is the first thing the reader sees, and it could affect their purchasing decision.
David Gaughran – I can’t recommend this guy enough. He publishes books on Amazon (the Let’s Get Publishing series). These cover the entire journey from publication to promotion and advertising. He also has a blog at: https://davidgaughran.com/blog and publishes regular newsletters, which you can sign up to on the home page of his website.
Readers in the Know – When you run a promotion with Amazon you need to shout about it, and there are promotion websites specifically for this. Readers in the Know points you to numerous websites of this type but if you pay to join you can also promote your books on this site. The page with a list of promotion websites is at: https://www.readersintheknow.com/list-of-book-promotion-sites.
Sandra Beckwith – Similar website to David Gaughran but with a US bias
The Publicity Hound – Similar website to David Gaughran and Sandra Beckwith but with a US bias and not just for authors. NB These two are easy to find in Google search.
Amazon Exclusivity – In order to run promotions with Amazon you must publish exclusively with Amazon, but I think the advantages of doing this far outweigh the disadvantages as they have more than 80% of the digital market. Exclusivity is only for a limited period though and you can deselect this option once you reach the end of the qualifying period for your promotion – details are at KDP Select.
Going Wide – If you want to publish on more digital platforms e.g., Kobo, the easiest and quickest way to do it is with Draft 2 Digital (https://www.draft2digital.com/) which enables you to publish to several different platforms at once.
Print Books – It is also possible to publish print books via Amazon. Their print publishing arm used to be called CreateSpace, but I believe it is all now done via KDP Select. However, as their print books are print on demand, they are expensive to produce so you have to set a high sale price to make any profit. For example, my print on demand books are priced at around £12.99 on Amazon whereas my books that have had a mass market print run are priced at around £7.99 or less. You used to be able to calculate price, profit etc. on CreateSpace but I’m not sure how this is now done as it was 5 years ago when I published my own.
Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads – It is also possible to advertise your books on Facebook and Amazon. However, to advertise your books on Facebook you will need to set up an author page first. David Gaughran’s articles often give details of how to do these things.
Social Media – You can also shout about your books on social media. I have a Facebook author page and a Twitter page, but other authors have other social media platforms such as Instagram.
I hope you find these ideas useful but apologise if any of them are out of date. Now that I’m with a publisher, most of this gets taken care of for me and it’s a few years since I had to take care of everything myself. Good luck with your publishing journey.
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Here’s a chance to grab your free copy of my short story book, “Crime, Conflict & Consequences”, which is on free promotion from today on the Amazon Kindle: http://viewbook.at/Consequences. There are 10 stories in a variety of genres, writing styles and themes so there should be something to suit a wide range of reading tastes.
Here is the book blurb:
This entertaining collection of 10 assorted tales explores a variety of genres with stories of crime, love and family dilemmas. There are also a few twists and surprises along the way. The common thread running through each story is – consequences.
These short stories are a great introduction to the work of Heather Burnside. Each one makes an enjoyable quick read with a satisfying conclusion.
I hope you enjoy the stories.
Here it is at last, the cover for my forthcoming crime thriller, “Slur”, designed by the talented Chris Howard at: blondesign@gmail.com.
I think that this image captures my lead character (Julie) perfectly and I love what Chris has done with it. By focusing on her face he has shown the distress that Julie is going through. She is also a very stunning young woman and the image is big enough to show both of these elements even at thumbnail size. Chris has added some make-up as well, which makes Julie even more attractive.
I love the background colours and fonts that Chris has used. I wanted “Slur” to appear almost handwritten – you’ll understand why when you read the book. Chris was great to work with and willing to make changes until we had a cover that we were both happy with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend his services to other authors.
Here is the blurb for the book:
How would it feel to be accused of a murder you didn’t commit? To believe your friends, family and colleagues had turned against you. Would you reach breaking point or fight to prove your innocence?
Julie Quinley finds herself in this position following the events of one fateful night. She has to bear the slights and accusations of colleagues and acquaintances, and life becomes unbearable. Eventually, thinking that she has lost the respect of everyone around her, Julie plunges into a deep depression.
However, unknown to Julie, those closest to her are rallying support. She reaches a turning point when her friends reveal that they may have found the real killer. Realising she must act in order to clear her name, Julie joins them in trying to find evidence.
But proving a vicious murderer guilty is never going to be easy, especially when the police remain unconvinced. Will Julie and her friends succeed? And is their suspect really responsible for the crime?
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I’m hoping to launch “Slur” sometime in September and will be posting updates as we get nearer the time. To celebrate the publication of my debut novel I’ll be hosting a big online launch party with competitions and lots of great prizes, and will publish announcements via this blog, on my Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/DianeMannionWritingServices and on Twitter @Dydywriter. In the meantime, you can preview the first chapter at: http://www.dianemannion.co.uk/books.html. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Read a Sample Chapter’.
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Heather Burnside Author 